Okay so to begin, this is SO LATE! Im very sorry, just been crazy trying to get started back to school. So to start I will recap my last two weeks:


Wayne Dupage- Was defiantly I learning experience. I didn't score as well in the dressage as I would have hoped but I stayed on Murphy in warm up too long. It been like walking a tightrope trying to polish his warmup and it didn't help they were running behind. But I would again say we are working toward where we need to be. Cross country was fantastic. we had a lot of questions, but the course rode beautifully. I would say the little pony is finally becoming a REAL horse! We had a corner 5 stride bending line to a max drop in the water to a skinny log, which was very exciting. I was a little worried about the bounces steps two strides to a toothbrush skinny, but Murphy locked right on and jumped in like a pro. The other water was a drop in bending line bounce coops where we had the problems at Maui, but it seems as though Murphy has put that experience behind him. So overall he was wonderful. His rider on the other hand, had a little pilot error. I have also been working on trying to go a little quicker, so after fence four I kicked and came around a turn and opps jump right in front of me. Murphy is a very smart horse because he won't just jump if he doesn't feel safe which trying to jump the simple house would have probably turned into a ugly problem, so we picked up twenty but continued on our way. I guess I need to pay a little more attention to where I can go fast and where I need to continue with what I got. Guess I won't make that mistake again.
To top off the weekend, Murphy was PERFECT in showjumping. He jumped one of the nicest rounds in his life going forward with plenty on attention on me. Unfortunately had a rail at the first element of the triple, but I was proud regardless. We finished 8th and won come horse treats and a saddle pad from Fleeceworks. It is so generous of companies to donate prizes, I just really want to say thanks from all of us in the eventing world, we really do appreciate it. To finish the weekend, I loaded up my stuff and heading on a 14hr adventure back to South Carolina.


So there is a quick recap and now I am finally settled in at school and have finished my barn duties working for Craig Thompson. I had the luxury of taking care of hundreds of turkeys, 5 horses, and 4 dogs for a week. It was very exciting. 


So today was the first day of Full Gallop horse trials in Aiken, SC and it didn't go as planned... I warmed up for dressage and Murphy felt a little sluggish, but I was just thinking he was tired. I went over to the dressage rings and came down center line, halted and saluted, which was very nice, and then turned right and had a lame horse. I ended up pulling up pretty quickly in my horses best interest and asked to be excused. Turns out I think Murphy is abscessing. So we pulled the shoe and we went home to soak in Epsom salts. I am a little disappointed because the course looked like a blast and I was really looking forward to getting another intermediate under my belt but there is always tomorrow. Hopefully Murphy will be back in work next week and we can continue the trek to Fair Hill ! 


Here are some pictures from Wayne. As you can see Murphy likes Cheetos.

So the last week has been somewhat stressful. Traveling across the country with horse in toe in hard enough, but with a competition and school starting, its CRAZY! But luckily I starting packing way early so now I can really concentrate on preparing for this weekend  at Wayne Dupage.


Murphy had a great dressage lesson yesterday working on every little aspect of Intermeidate test B. Not as easy task. We really worked on slowing down the turn on the haunches and adding a little bit more expression in my canter work. Cantering down the centerline all the way to G with a halt is quite a difficult task. 


Then today we had a GREAT jump school. Matt is great because he really sets up the questions I want to work on. We worked on bending lines with skinnies off the bank and he set up a very similar exercise with our sunken road to mimik the Maui Jim Water. Murphy felt wonderful and if he jumps anything like he did today... Rolex 2012 here we come. :)


Hey a girls gotta dream right? Ohh and funny story. So I have always been told I am good at training slaves... just kidding, but really I got my brothers and cousins to sponge murphy and graze him for me for 3o mins! Mind you they are all between 4-7. It was awesome. I think that one more of these outings and they will be ready for the vet box. :)


Her are some pics from today...

So Matt, Lucia, and I packed up four ponies this weekend and heading off to Penny Oaks, in Edinburgh Indiana. After a seven hour adventure down there ( should have been four) we arrived to uppack, walk courses, and then still ride. It was crazy. The preliminary course was very straightforward but proved to be exactly what he needed.

Dressage was bright and early, Murphy put in a very good test. I was a little disappointed in my score, but I was still right up there in third.  I feel like this year our dressage has been teater tottering between scores with very consistent tests. Sometimes can be a little frustrating. Some judges like to see a very forward test, and some conservative... but we will keep on trecking.

Cross country was great. He was quick, eager, and didn't blink at anything. I guess the watch I was using wasn't working so I was a little disappointed but had the fastest xc of all the preliminary only adding four points to my score. Showjumping was a very akward twisty, turny course without any flow. There was only one double clean round in the prelim so I wasn't too dissapointed with my one rail. I ended up second and very far ahead of 3rd. Hopefully this trend will continue to next weekend at Wayne were Murphy will do the open intermediate. Congradulations to Lucia Menozi for winning the JNR and Matt Trynoski for finishing 8th on his mares first training. :)  Keep checking out Twitter as I am trying to update it almost everyday!